Tatia, who?
by klarolineepiclove
Summary: A Klaroline drabble: In which the green-eyed monster wreaks havoc on Caroline's heart.


_A drabble: The green-eyes monster wreaks havoc on Caroline's heart_

She knew she couldn't hide from him.

And really, she wasn't hiding, per say. It was more like she was…avoiding.

Caroline sighed as she hit the Ignore button on her phone again, tossing it haphazardly onto the bed next to her as she curled her legs under her. She raised the straw that was stuck into the blood bag to her mouth, and let her eyes closed as she took a long drink.

She hadn't meant to find the sketch. She certainly hadn't meant to be caught snooping by Kol, of all the Originals. She knew how much he liked to stir up trouble. She certainly knew how much he loved to rile her up. The baby vampire, as he liked to call her, with that smirk always on his youthful face.

_She'd woken up that morning to an empty bed, an occurrence she wasn't completely unfamiliar with, but one she didn't particularly enjoy. Klaus was always disappearing on her while she slept. It was a rare feat when she managed to catch the hybrid as he slept, so much that she often wondered if he even DID sleep. The only thing that had tamed her temper had been the handwritten note that was resting on his pillow._

_**Don't move an inch, love. I'll be back shortly. And the ravishing will continue.**_

_**Nik.**_

_She couldn't help the smitten grin that spread across her face. Nearly a year later, and he could still reduce her to nothing more than a giggling teenager._

_Throwing the sheets away from her body, she pulled herself out of the comfort of his plush, King-sized bed and strode to his closet. She pulled out one of his long sleeved Henley's—the gray one she was particularly partial too, and pulled on her discarded jeans. Running a hand through her hair—which she was sure was a disaster, considering the way he had run his fingers through it the previous night—she crossed the room, folding his note and carefully putting it in her back pocket._

_Caroline made her way down the expansive hallway, her fingers trailing along the wall as she listened for any movement behind the numerous doors. The mansion was oddly silent for an early morning. She knew Rebekah was more than likely out with Matt. Elijah had become quite a fixture with the Council over the last year, and she knew from her mother that there was a meeting at some point that week. Kol…well, it was never really easy to ever know what the youngest Mikaelson brother was up to. Most of the time, she thought she was better off not knowing._

_Her steps slowed when she came to the door that led to Klaus' study, and she couldn't help smiling as she carefully pushed open the door. She loved his study. It was one of the only places where he let his guard down. She lost count of the number of times she'd sat across from him, watching the emotions flash across his face as his hands flew across the sketchpad that always resided in his lap. He never let her see his sketches before they were finished, always maneuvering the pad away from her prying eyes when she tried to sneak a peek. His trademark smirk would always appear on his face as he took her protesting face in his hands, and pressed his lips against hers to quell her argument._

_She made her way to the desk across the room, smiling softly as her hands trailed over the numerous drawing that littered the tabletop. Many of them were of her. Sketches of her smiling, laughing, even sleeping. **You are my muse, Caroline**, he often whispered into her ear when she asked why he always drew her.** I don't have a need to draw anything else but you.**_

_She let her eyes travel across his many works of art, imagining his fingers stained with black gliding across the paper, before they landed on one of them tucked beneath the rest. She frowned, her fingers grazing the edge of the worn parchment, before she plucked the corner and pulled it free of its coverings._

_Elena._

_The drawing was of Elena. But there was something different about her. She seemed…softer. Younger. Her hair fell in soft curls around her shoulders, longer than Caroline had ever seen in all the years she'd known the Gilbert girl. Her youthful face was fresh and clear, her lips tugged upwards in a graceful, carefree smile. The clothes were different too. Almost as if from a different time._

_"Tatia."_

_Caroline bit back a gasp as she whirled around, her hand clutching her chest, the drawing still caught tightly in her fingers. She narrowed her eyes at Kol's smirking face as he towered over her. "Lurk, much?" she asked. His smirk only grew, and she rolled her eyes, relaxing as she lowered the drawing from her chest. She sighed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Tatia, you said?"_

_Kol nodded, reaching out and taking the drawing from her hands. "The original doppleganger. A horrid young thing, to be honest. Pleasant enough, I suppose. Certainly easy on the eyes. She caught Elijah's, that's for certain. And Niklaus, as well." He smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "The brawls my brothers would engage in over Tatia. Always, 'I saw her first,' and 'her heart belongs to me.' Blah blah blah. Always day in, and day out. It grew quite irritating, Caroline, you have no idea. But even then, when Nik saw something he wanted, he stopped at nothing to get it. Even if it meant betraying his brother." He smirked, watching the uneasiness spread across her face. "Come now, darling. You're well aware of that. It is how you ended up here, amongst the riffraff, isn't it? Nik's persistence. It's a force to be reckoned with."_

Tatia.

She'd tossed the name around in her mouth the entire time she raced home, leaving Kol smirking and gloating in Klaus' study.

Stefan had told her about Tatia. The irony wasn't lost on her—two brothers who had fallen for the same girl. She knew that it was Tatia's blood that had turned them into vampires. She just had never known her name.

He kept the sketch. Clearly, it had been drawn many years ago, from the condition it had been in. Probably tossed to the side and forgotten about. But still, he had kept it. She knew it shouldn't bother her, but it did. It did more than she could say.

Which was why she was avoiding him. She couldn't take his excuses. She couldn't take being second choice. Again. Not with him.

The wind shifted in her room, and she FELT him, before she actually saw him. He stood at the foot of her bed, and she could feel his intense gaze boring into her. She pulled the straw from her mouth, swallowing the last gulp of blood before she hesitantly raised her eyes to meet his.

His handsome face was expressionless, his deep blue eyes searching her face intently. He didn't move, just stood there in the center of her room. In his hand, she recognized the sketch of Tatia.

She sighed, gently placing the now empty blood bag onto her nightstand before she curled her hands in her lap, waiting for him to speak.

"I thought I told you not to move, love."

His voice sent that familiar shiver down her spine, and she shrugged, refusing to succumb to its soothing rhythm. "I don't listen very well."

Klaus' lips quirked up into a small smile. "You don't have to tell me, sweetheart. I'm well aware of that fact."

Silence settled between them again, Caroline avoiding his gaze as her fingers played with the frayed ends of the quilt that covered her bed.

"Caroline…"

"Did you love her?" she asked, raising her eyes to stare into his. She saw the hesitancy in them, the way his face faltered the slightest bit, and she sighed. "Jesus, Nik, you can tell me. I'm not gonna…shatter into a million pieces with the knowledge that in a thousand years, you loved somebody before me."

He let out a weary sigh then, and he raised his hand, running it down his face. "Yes, I loved her," he said softly, taking a step towards the bed. "In the way that a young, foolish man only can."

Caroline dropped her gaze to her lap again as she nodded, and she felt the bed shift slightly as he took a seat across from her. He was careful to leave several inches between them, always cautious in his actions towards her. He still believed that the slightest action on his part was going to send her running.

If he only knew how much it killed her to be apart from him for even a second.

"Caroline," his voice called to her. "Talk to me, love. You know it drives me mad when you're so silent."

She shrugged again, throwing up her hands as she looked up at him. "You kept the sketch, Nik." She watched as he settled back slightly, his brow furrowed as his eyes dropped the drawing in question. "I know that she's a part of your history. I get that. I get that, in as many years as you've been roaming the earth, there are some memories that you just can't shake. I just…don't know why you had to keep the damn drawing."

"Is that what this is about?" he asked. "A bloody drawing that was done too many years ago to even recall?" She was silent, and he sighed, crumbling the sketch in his hands and tossing it across the room as he scooted closer to her on the bed. "Caroline, I had forgotten I even still possessed it. Tatia hasn't crossed my mind in a long time, love. Not since you."

"You don't have to lie, Nik," she said, pushing her hair behind her ears. "I'm not an idiot. She was TATIA. She was the start of it all."

"Caroline."

She sighed, shaking her head. "I understand. She was classy, and beautiful, and so freaking…Elena-ish. I could tell from just a stupid drawing. And I'm…just Caroline." She frowned. "She was the love of your life."

His hands were on her then, cupping her face, tilting it up gently until she was forced to look into his eyes. She was shocked to see the intensity of emotions there; shock, anger, worry. Love.

His thumbs were tracing a soft path against her cheek, and his eyes bored into hers as he pressed his forehead against hers. "YOU are the love of my life, sweet Caroline," he whispered harshly, his eyes never leaving hers. "Why do always doubt it? As often as I proclaim it to you?"

Caroline shrugged. "Old habits die hard, I guess," she said softly, so quiet that it would have been missed to human ears.

She heard him chuckle softly, his lips softly caressing her own for the briefest second. "It's a habit I'll have to break you off, love."

She laughed softly, raising her hands so that they rested over his on her face, and raised her eyes to stare into his. "But Tatia…"

"She means nothing to me, Caroline. I believed I loved her, once. But it wasn't until I met you that I realized I had no idea what love was. No idea that it was so much more than just a weakness." He pressed his lips to her again, letting them softly trail across her jawline, over her cheek, and let them rest just next to her ear. "You consume my every thought, Caroline. Every breath I take. Every step. You consume me, love." His lips trailed down her neck then, and he sighed against her skin when he felt her hands travel up his arms to rest on his shoulders. "There is no room for Tatia. Not anymore. Not in my mind. And not in my heart." He smiled, slowly tracing the curve of her neck back up to her lips. "You're all I need, love. You're all I want. You're all I've ever wanted."

Caroline smiled, resting her forehead against his. "And…Tatia?"

She felt him, rather than saw him, smile. "Tatia who?"

She giggled, shaking her head as she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his. His arms wrapped themselves around her waist, pulling her against him, and she felt herself being slowly lowered onto the pillows against her headboard. His body covered hers easily, seeming to fit against her so perfectly, and she sighed as his lips trailed down her neck once more. "Now I believe I mentioned something about breaking you of your horrid habit, love."

Caroline grinned, her fingers tangling themselves into his blonde curls as he pushed her deeper into the bed. "I don't think it's going to be an easy task," she whispered, laughing. "It's a well formed habit."

She felt him grin against her cheek, and she sighed when she felt his hand creep just under her shirt, his palm flattening against her stomach. "Well, I guess it's a good thing I've had a thousand years of practice then."

She laughed, shaking her head as he pulled his face to hers, once more losing herself in his kiss and his caress.

Tatia who, indeed.


End file.
